Melville Cockburn Chamber of Commerce urges caution as local economy re-opens for business

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THE Melville Cockburn Chamber of Commerce (MCCC) says there is still a lot of uncertainty within the local business community despite WA’s positive handling of COVID-19.

WA’s low numbers of active cases, coupled with the state government’s easing of restrictionsm have allowed more businesses to re-open their doors to the public over the past week.

However, MCCC executive officer Monique Williams said a lot of businesses were still uncertain about their future and given social distancing was still being encouraged to a degree, they would need to adapt to the ‘new normal’.

“Businesses need to mindful that the pandemic isn’t over even though Western Australian’s have done a remarkable job. The way of doing business after coronavirus will be different,” she said.

Over the next month, the MCCC are set to launch over their ‘Road to Recovery’ webinar series, featuring marketing strategies for beyond COVID-19, while the chamber is currently conducting a survey to work out its members needs.

“We’re asking are they on JobKeeper, is their business down and if so, how much by, are they aware of local government stimulus packages for small business, where do they see their business in next 6-12 months and how can their chamber support them,” Ms Williams said.

She said stimulus packages from local governments, as well as the Federal JobKeeper scheme, had been appreciated by the chamber’s members.

“There has been much positivity about the incentives state and local government are offering small business. Jobkeeper is what most want to talk about,” she said.

The chamber has been running a number of initiatives since the pandemic started, including their Business Care series of weekly webinars, launched in partnership with the City of Melville.

Ms Williams said they had contacted all their members after the coronavirus had escalated and helped them understand government stimulus packages, offered them marketing opportunities and a stay on membership costs up to three months.

“Our core business is networking and this has obviously been impacted. However, we anticipate making up some of the Business after Hours networking events, albeit in smaller groups,” she said.